Northwind February 23, 2012
President Gary Presided and Led Our Pledge of Allegiance.
Invocation by Maureen McCarthy
Four-Way Test Led by Pete Ruese
Returning Rotarians: None
VISITING ROTARIANS: Jeanne McGee and Larry Farr (Bellingham Sunrise)
GUESTS: Rocky’s guest was his wife, Sylvia. Julie’s guest was Sharon Allen, who is Rich Jacobson’s sister.
BIRTHDAYS & ANNIVERSARIES: Tyler Cook on February 27th and Rome Sarwas on February 28th. Happy Birthday guys!!!!
ANNOUNCMENTS: 1. The Club is starting a new “Greeter” program to have a person greeting at the door each week. A list was passed around listing those assigned as Greeters through the end of June 2012. Thanks to Jim Blaney and Stan Brunner for the idea. 2. RYLA will be held April 26th this year, and the Club has budgeted to sponsor 2 participants. If you have names of potential participants, please let Gary know. 3. On March 15th the beautiful wooden bench handcrafted by Bill Grace will be auctioned off at the Club meeting. The proceeds will be used for the Club’s contribution to Whatcom in Bloom. If more than one person would like a bench, Bill will make more for a contribution of at least $300. 4. Roster updates are in play at the moment. Most members will get their rosters from the Club’s website. Those needing a paper copy identified themselves. If anyone else needs a paper copy, please contact Bill Grace. 5. The jewelry auction closed out at today’s meeting. Thanks to Marlene and Julie for doing this. 6. Starting March 1st and throughout the month of March, for each $100 given to the foundation the local Rotary District will award 2 Paul Harris points to the person making the donation. So please keep in mind our goal of every Rotarian making a foundation contribution every year. 7. There are a fair number of dates to put on your calendar. I hope I’ve gotten these dates right. March 17 – District Membership Seminar; March 24 – NSEA Club project workday; March 31 – Literacy and Vocational Seminar; April 7 - Litter Pickup project; April 14 – District Conference; April 28 – District Rotary Workday to paint at the Blaine Boys & Girls Club. 8. CAREER FAIR – The Career Fair will be held at Whatcom Community College on March 29th. For those assisting, please show up between 7 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. The program will start at 8 a.m.
HAPPY BUCKS: Greg Thulin was $3 happy for being able to ski for the first time in 3 years, and he came off the slopes unscathed. Rollo was $2 happy for the chocolate and wine festival. Norm tossed in $5 for all of the job prospects that his wife has been encountering. Dan P will be alone this weekend doing a pub crawl as his wife and son will be in Spokane. Bill Grace gave blood and gave happy dollars to encourage others to do the same. He also announced his car club’s participation in the Sea to Ski activities on May 27th in Boulevard Park. And he made another pitch for folks to get in their roster updates. Mel Hollinger was sitting at another table again today. Bill Grace gave some additional dollars for sitting between 2 southpaws for lunch. Maureen announced that Peoples Bank will match up to $10K for donations made to the McGregor family fund. Julie was happy to have her guest Sharon with her today.
Banners: The banners commemorated President Washington’s birthday and President’s Day. Thanks Stan. There were also some comments about the switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.
FINEMASTER was Ken Richardson: Bill Grace was fined throwing in so little money for all of his announcements/happy bucks. Greg Thulin was fined for Ken looking at Greg’s facebook photo and mumbling something about having only his feet in the picture. Norm was fined $5 for GP. President Gary was fined $2 for sneaking up on Jim Blaney and having him be the Greeter today. All club members were fined $1 for the group having the lamest “Hello” to our guests and visiting Rotarians. Marlene was fined for some combination of using the phone and being a mother-in-law. Jim Sands was fined for only nailing down today’s speaker last night. (Jim later said he actually nailed down the speaker on Tuesday night. Didn’t make the fine any less, though.) Greg Iwasaki, Rick and Pete were fined for replacing Mel at the table where Mel usually sits. Ken tossed in a $5 IOU for Paul Cooley for missing his finemaster turn. Tim V was fined for handing around some article about literacy. Ken fined the 3 attorneys sitting at one table. Jake was fined $2 for taking away Ken’s opportunity to fine Jake for being the last person in the door. Jake, you’re d’d if you do and d’d if you don’t. Ken also offered the chance for someone to pay $5 to levy a fine on another club member. No takers on this one.
PROGRAM: Larry Farr from the Bellingham Sunrise Club was our speaker today on the subject of Royal Family Kids Camp. These camps started back in 1993, Larry became involved very early on, and has been a national trainer for quite some time. The primary goal of Royal Family Kids Camp is to reach out and touch children between the ages of 7 and 11 living in foster care homes so they can attend camp for 5 days with other kids and lots of adults. At last count, there are 180 camps in the US and 197 is 20 other countries. Larry took us through an exercise of thinking back to when we were 9 years old and asked us each to react to how it would feel to have something of real personal value taken away from us. This is what foster care kids face all the time. Presently there are 223 foster beds in Whatcom County. The Bellingham Royal Family Kids Camp is able to take in 72 kids at the annual 5 day camp. There are 140 adult volunteers that are at this camp. The Bellingham site is a national training camp for others. There are 11 camps in Washington State. One of the fundraisers is the annual “Drive By Giving” day involving KAFE 104.1 at Cruisin’ Coffee locations around town. This camp is a very worthwhile effort to help foster care kids, and Larry is a great example of a Rotarian who truly have the spirit of “service above self” in helping out in such meaningful ways.